We just got back from our family vacation in the Netherlands and it was such a pleasure to be able to stay at our own little pied-a-terre in Amsterdam. Last year my husband and I decided not to rent out our Amsterdam apartment any longer but keep it as our own ‘retreat’ to enjoy some down-time with the boys and just to feel at home – like literally, on the couch! When you have lived abroad as long as we have, you sometimes start to feel ‘dislocated or out of place’ and having one spot on this planet that you really can call home brings back that so much needed balance in your life. So we go there as often as we can (and work allows…)..added benefit is of course that it is very liberating not having to impose all the time on family or friends to stay in their homes for a couple of weeks (I am sure they feel the same way…).

Both of us have a strong love for vintage contemporary furniture, so instead of giving each other Christmas presents we bought some collector items online. But more on this in a different post coming soon. Today I would like to share some images of the dried plants we keep in our place. As it it impossible to water plants remotely… I believe these dried flowers and plants are the perfect alternative. You simply dust them off upon your return… and they are great for decorating I think…

What do you think? You like the dried giant hogwood? Or the grapes? The grapes are slightly unusual (and big…) perhaps but I really thought they looked kind of cool…

Found some more dramatic dried plants online ... in the third and fifth picture: Studio Oink used dried flowers for a styling assigment for Stattman-moebel. And Mikael Axelsson beautifully photographed these dried Carduus at the organic and biodynamic flower shop: Landet Järna.

Hi and welcome to Bloesem! My name is Irene Hoofs and I started this journal in 2006 wanting to share my passion for design, art and craft with you. I moved to a new platform in 2016 called BloesemDesign.com